Thanks again for a another great Z Fall outing Ross!! The weather, food and company were great!! A special thanks to your wonderful wife and family for putting up with us ..... and a thanks goes out to your understanding neighbors too!!

It's remarkable to me what this one man has done within a single year. Ross Williams has taken the bones of several failed clubs and built a thriving, vibrant community of like-minded Z lovers. Under his leadership and selfless enthusiasm, the CTZCC didn't "grow" ~ it EXPLODED!

Today, a mere year after he got the idea, Ross' "baby" is not a toddler, it's a RUNNER! My only concern is that he carries too much on his shoulders. He quietly asks for help and if it comes, he is generous with his praise, encouragement and assistance. If it doesn't come (like the Events Director position, for example), he just shoulders his cross and slugs along, doing everything himself. I'm reminded of the fairy tale about the little red hen.

Now that Ross has launched this Club into full-throttle, I really want to encourage our Membership to contribute to its continued success in some way next season. Probably doesn't have to be full time, probably doesn't have to be frequent. But when you get an idea (and MAN! Our members have GOOD ideas!) please share it! If you find a cool location for a 3 hour Fun Run, let us all know and don't be afraid to help organize it. We don't need 40 cars to have a good time ~ but you'll be surprised how great it is to see a dozen of your buddies pull into the same lot next to a Dunkin Donuts some weekend morning.

President Ross, I thank you, Sir. You've given me one of the 'funnest' years I can remember. I don't know if you ever Hibernate during the winter, but I suspect eventually your family will be calling you back home to remind you that you're a husband and a daddy. It MIGHT be a good time to find a hot tropical island somewhere and fall asleep on a beach.

Holy Cow! What a great outing that was on Saturday. The weather could not have been better (OK, maybe by 5 degrees) and it was great to have a chance to speak with people that I only knew by e-mail or the web-site. While I agree with Frank that it was just about impossible to do an accurate count, by matching the registration book with physical counts and pictures I conclude that we had 63 cars and well over 100 people in attendance. While this was a free event, we still brought in $211 from merchandise sales, including the club's share of the hats and books being sold.

I would like to acknowledge a few people that helped out yesterday:

Jim Murphy: was the first to arrive and spent at least an hour with
me carrying tables and helping with set up. Jim also was invaluable
in getting cars parked in an organized manner.

Phil Parent: also arrived early to help set up and even lent a hand
raking leaves! Phil of course also spent much of the day recording
the event in pictures.

Dave Sirico: is always up for lending a hand and is the man behind
those snazzy and official looking parking attendant vests. Dave made
squeezing all those cars onto the front lawn look easy! Someday I'm
going to take him up on one of those cigars!

Keith Hultmark: not only produced our first CTZCC club hats, he also
fronted the production costs, with every dollar of profit going to the
club. He also manned the registration and merchandise tables when
Brenda and I were off attending to other things.

Bob Sharp: he came, he stayed, he shmoozed, he signed, he posed and
he talked. Everything we love having him around to do!

Tom: Wish I could remember his last name! He donated ice, soft
drinks and those free CT cruise news magazines.

Frank Thomas: was my behind the scenes "commandant", making sure
people had nametags, made connections, took home parts and generally
had fun and stayed out of trouble! He also assisted with parking
early in the day.

Ron Morales: If Ron had not stepped in to help cook, I think we might
have had a mutiny on our hands. He saw Brenda overwhelmed and stepped
into action. Five minutes later the assembly line had begun and we
were back on track. For those that patiently waited for food, we'll
do a better job at this aspect next year.

Everyone: that brought a part for our swap table. I heard of several
people that walked off with something they had been looking for.

Stacy Maxwell: who donated a portion of all proceeds from her
Consummate Connecticut book to the club.

Pete Muckell from New England Bounce About for donating the
bounce-house. Many parents had the opportunity to walk around and
enjoy themselves because they knew their kids were safe and having fun
in the backyard.

Brenda: What a trooper! She registered our members and helped to
cook food for over 100 people! I owe her big time as she reminded me
both last night and this morning. It's going to cost me dearly.

Anyway, I hope you all had as great a time as I did and will be active
in our club next season.

Wow! After seeing the pictures, I am sorry we did not make the trek north from Maryland! Missed opportunity to meet racing legend Bob Sharp and share the camaraderie of the Z Car with old and new freinds. I noticed quite a few familiar faces that have been at other Z events in the NE and at the Z Conventions. After I had decided not to go, Michelle informed me on Saturday that she had planned on surprizing me by saying that she and Jake wanted to go. My wife does not do car events that often, I take Jake (2 1/2) sometimes. Too bad looks like Jake would have had a great time with the other kids, bouncey thing, and of course the cars. We will make the Spring or Summer session if planned.

Kirk, let me tell ya' buddy ~ you missed a GREAT time. This was five hours of smiles and laughter. Over 100 people, nearly 70 cars, our member Ronnie Morales commandeered the grille and turned out PERFECT free cheeZeburgers and hotdogZ, the FREE partZ table couldn't hold all the goodies everyone brought, there were about 200 fancy cigar boxeZ up for grab as partZ boxes, members met members who they had communicated with for months but haddn't met yet, some very fancy lady showed up wearing the most expensive pair of English riding boots I've ever seen, Tom Wasney ate ALMOST all his 1,000 free hotdogs, Bob Sharp pulled in with his brand-new (800 miles) GT-R, a 1600 Roadster made it to us, and we literally ran out in the roadway and flagged down some baffled guy in a 510 racer who was simply passing by, and DEMANDED that he pull in and show his car.

The weather was nearly perfect, the little kids (who couldn't care less about Z cars) had a blast together in Ross' back yard, nobody got hurt, no cars collided, no parts fell off, nothing fell from the trees onto the cars, Nobody got sick from Ron's cooking, nobody backed over anybody, No bees or bugs ever found us, Bob Sharp spent 5 minutes with each visitor, Ross couldn't stop smiling, Brenda Williams was the most gracious hostess I've ever met, members made it to us from Mass in cars which had only been put back together the night before, I got a CARLOAD of spare parts I never dreamed of ever finding, a Z enthusiast from Japan wandered in speaking very little English and found ANOTHER Japanese national there (!!!), we had EXACTLY enough space to park every car that came in....the list goes on and on. We showed a Roadster, a 510 racer, two G-nose cars, three (THREE!) convertibles, a Fairlady, two Chevy V8 conversions, two Black Pearls, a Bazillion Series-1 cars, a GT-33 Bob Sharp Special, a slew of Z31s, Z32s and 350Zs, driven by members from CT, NY, NJ, RI, MASS, and VT.

We all sat around in a big circle and complained that your two RHD Fairladies weren't here and discussed what the heck we can do to tempt you to get your Act up here next time.

I will defintely make the next one with two Fairladys my wife and a Japanese woman. I am humbled that I was a topic of discussion and I look forward to future events hosted by a great group of people. Any cigar boxes left?

Unbelievable pictures, sounds like a great time was had by all. I've just got to find a way to drive # 1651 out to next years outing, from Washington State. I have talked to some of you by e-mail , which makes me feel part of the club, however being there in person would be fantastic.
All the fabulous pictures, of all the people and cars, unbelievable! When you guys throw a party, its a party!
Great job Ross, your dedication, and passion, are very evident. Great going members!
All my best.
Dan Linquist aka danny's 240z

Thanks Dan. It is truly a labor of love and probably the gathering that I look most forward to each year. It certainly would be great to have you here in person next year, either with or without your car. Hope you could make that happen! Sincerely, Ross

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